Why is this an issue?

Hard-coding credentials in source code or binaries makes it easy for attackers to extract sensitive information, especially in distributed or open-source applications. This practice exposes your application to significant security risks.

This rule flags instances of hard-coded credentials used in database and LDAP connections. It looks for hard-coded credentials in connection strings, and for variable names that match any of the patterns from the provided list.

In the past, it has led to the following vulnerabilities:

How to fix it

Credentials should be stored in a configuration file that is not committed to the code repository, in a database, or managed by your cloud provider’s secrets management service. If a password is exposed in the source code, it must be changed immediately.

Code Examples

Noncompliant code example

username = 'admin'
password = 'admin' # Noncompliant
usernamePassword = 'user=admin&password=admin' # Noncompliant

Compliant solution

import os

username = os.getenv("username") # Compliant
password = os.getenv("password") # Compliant
usernamePassword = 'user=%s&password=%s' % (username, password) # Compliant

Resources